LOS ANGELES — It’s still difficult to process the devastation, that these are the Los Angeles Lakers. The 16-time champs. The team that coulda-woulda won 70 this season, yet suffered a third consecutive playoff loss and their worst one ever at home Friday, 120-89, to the San Antonio Spurs.

The classic gold uniforms emblazoned with purple down the sides and LAKERS racing across the front looked the same as playoffs past. But who were those guys wearing them? Even Jack had to raise his shades.

Guys named Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris and Chris Duhon and Earl Clark were forced to play minutes better suited for a Vegas Summer League game. Meanwhile, $34.2 million of Laker payroll — or the club’s top four guards, including a cat named Kobe Bryant — watched from the bench, injured and dejected.

Actually, Black Mamba never even made it courtside. He probably knew what was ahead and knew he couldn’t stomach it, knew he couldn’t contain himself out in the open in front of restless fans, his fans, and grinding his teeth into talcum powder right there on the floor he’s so accustomed to dominating this time of year. Hidden from view, Bryant probably sent himself a thousand tweets.

After the game, being whirred away in a golf cart and wearing a gold Lakers t-shirt and a protective boot rising halfway up his left leg, Kobe was asked if it was hard to watch. “Of course,” he said, turning his palms up as if to say #WTH.

The game was uglier than even expected and the final result fit the description Mike D’Antoni used before the game for his state of mind considering the injuries and the crew he had left for a must-win Game 3: “As a coach you sleep like a baby and every 15 minutes you wake up crying.”

Then asked if his newly-christened backcourt of newbies Goudelock and Morris might actually improve the team’s perimeter defense from that of Steve Nash and Steve Blake, D’Antoni first laughed out loud, then said, “Uh, no.” He kept laughing.

Earlier in the day, the coach and his players tried to paint a scenario of success, talking of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol taking care of the paint and the NBA D-League MVP Goudelock, thrilled for his first NBA start, he said, so his parents back home in Atlanta could watch him on TV, would go off as if Friday night was just another D-League Showcase. At least the kid came strong, and at least the Lakers didn’t allow their first 18-point deficit in the second quarter to wipe them out without a fight. The second one in the third quarter did, and then came the cheap “We Want Phil” chants, first short-lived and then more robust during the Spurs’ runaway fourth.

And with that, this stink-o, injury-ravaged Lakers season is finally in the spin cycle and ready to drain.

The San Antonio Spurs, with five players scoring in double figures and 13 in all scoring, seek to wrap up this fraudulent first-round series Sunday back at Staples. If accomplished it would be the second broom taken to the proud Lakers in three seasons. The unceremonious end will officially begin the unceremonious “Where’s Dwight Going?” reality show. Get your popcorn.

Of course, there’s still basketball to be played in L.A. as soon as Tuesday night when the toast-of-the-town Clippers and the once-upon-a-time-Lakers-bound Chris Paul return home for Game 5 against the Grizzlies. The Spurs, assuming they do close this sack of a series on Sunday, will go home to begin an extended rest awaiting the high-speed winner between Denver and Golden State, two clubs themselves that aren’t whole.

The Warriors’ David Lee (torn hip flexor) and Denver’s Danilo Gallinari (torn ACL), two high-scoring, highly productive forwards instrumental to their teams’ success, are each out for the duration. Oklahoma City now feels their pain. Point guard Russell Westbrook will have surgery, the team announced Friday, to repair a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee.

The Thunder and the Spurs, last season’s Western Conference foes, figured to be so again. OKC’s side of the bracket with the Clippers and Grizzlies has sprung wide open. And suddenly it’s the Spurs who look primed to make a real run at a fifth championship in the Gregg Popovich-Tim Duncan era, a number that would tie the 37-year-old wonder in rings with Kobe.

“We’re good. Health is good,” Popovich said prior to Game 3. “The last few weeks haven’t been great health-wise, but we’ve slowly gotten better and better. Considering how many people have problems around the league, and the Lakers having theirs, we’re feeling pretty fortunate in that regard.”

Only a few weeks ago, the Spurs were the walking wounded and now have their Big Three healthy and with Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker returning to All-Star form.

Of course health this time of year is fleeting and that fact came crashing home as starting center Tiago Splitter, having his best season in the NBA, hopped off the floor with his left foot dangling in mid-air and left the arena on crutches.

X-rays were negative, but chances are slim that he can play Sunday. It will leave the Spurs a little light in the middle for one last stand from Dwight and Pau, one, if not both of whom might be playing their final game in Laker purple-and-gold.

148 Comments

It’s not over yet because there is still game 4 Sunday night. I’m still hoping that my team the Lakers will win game 4. Next season we will get better and will win the championship. Go Lakers and win more championships.

howard is a misfit in the current coaching system! In the jacksons system, he would the main weapon! They are not knocking down 3 pointers when howards feeds them! lakers are bereft of scorers and play makers! It has been too easy for spurs! This is a clean sweep for 4-0!
the whole lakers roaster will get overhauled next season!

Sunday game – the miracle! it’s going to be a 7 game series with howard and gasol exploding, watch ginobli , paker and duncan get injured meyn! LOLOL JOKES! i love spurs and lakers, i don’t care who wins.

I am sorry but it does not have to be. lakers have two superstar 7 footers. Nash has not contributed much all season, Blake could shoot, but is unproven. I think if the coach would focus on the development of all player he would show his team confidence. You certainly dont display doubt, you build up the team morale. Look what he said… “As a coach you sleep like a baby and every 15 minutes you wake up crying.” Here agan he uses this situation as an excuse. Yes he lost Kobe, the one he called a “fan” when he was tweeting. Huh? Then asked if his newly-christened backcourt of newbies Goudelock and Morris might actually improve the team’s perimeter defense from that of Steve Nash and Steve Blake, D’Antoni first laughed out loud, then said, “Uh, no.” He kept laughing. does that build the morale of the team or the reserves. really? SPur have their problems, they are aging. Ginobolli is hurt, they can be beat by the Lakers… but not by the cry baby coach.

if Sports Fan, is correct about the Lakers not getting rid of Kobe and he may be absolutely correct because he is after all a long time fan favourite and a bit of loyalty would not go astray, then the lakers need to focus on the future not the immediate. Doing a total rebuild around who? Bryant cannot be that man because he has a year or two left at max particularly after an achilles injury. Keep Howard have Kobe and throw in Kyrie Irving and even a Stephen Curry then you have a great 3 or 4 player superstar team. What the lakers have lost is poise and confidence. I would retire Nash, get rid of Metta World Peace but go all out for Irving. Gasol gets unfair abuse and should stay but he may become the mystery card in any swap. Howard, Gasol, Kobe, Irvine = championship but they need a bit of speed and three point expertise and a focus on team chemistry. Derek Fisher whilst universally unloved did create chemistry and three point danger. One thing all lakers fans should remember about Dwight Howard is that he played on despite a serious back operation and for a guy as big as Howard such back surgery needs recovery time and despite that he still has put up reasonable numbers and can only get better. I am a spurs fan and would love Howard giving support to Tim Duncan enabling Duncan to finish off a further couple of years. By the way why do the Lakers always have to buy their way out of trouble ? what is wrong with developing local young talent and retaining them.

If Kobe was there, but he isn’t there. Face the facts and be realistic. The Lakers are done for this season. THE LAKERS ARE DONE, TOAST…. If Kobe was there, it would change too much anyway. Fact and statistics are against the Lakers or Fakers at that…

First of and most importantly the lakers whether they are losing or winning, loathe them or love them, they make the news and they put bums on seats and for small city franchises and the nba commission we want the purple and gold in the headlines. Now for some rational explanations. 1. Nash was a 1 or 2 year experiment at best, his age and health was against him lakers got him in for the instant championship but hey does everyone forget Lakers Circa 2004, Malone, Payton, etc,etc, you can’t build instant karma ask anyone except John Lennon! Even refer to The Miami Heat with arguably the best big three of all time, Lebron, Wade and Bosh they couldn’t get it done in 2011 and needed time 2. The lakers have attemped to build a team to combat the Heat for instant results, but the mix won’t work. Nash and Kobe ? No Nash needs to run and dish off Nobody knows who should get the ball at the Lakers. 3. Bosh, James and Wade are not selfish egocentric contributors Where as Howard and Kobe are. 4. Even with injuries Lakers have under performed the team that was routed by Spurs in game 3, still had Howard, Gasol and Metta World Peace and most franchises would love to have them as your big starting three. The conclusion is that Howard may not be the man to build the franchise around, but at any rate, Kobe will not let go and it makes for a bad chemistry mix. the lakers are caught in transition and don’t know how to move on, but they have previous experience aka Kobe and Shaq and unless Kobe can take a different role it’s time to say goodbye like the did to Shaq and rebuild around Howard otherwise it’s been a very expensive and wasteful 2013 just like 2004! Nash is 38 going on 39, Bryant 35, the only solution if you want something more than instant karma is to build around Howard despite the doubt about him. If I was the lakers I would go hell for leather to get a shooting guard young gun (watch out cavaliers – the perfect candidate is there) and retire Nash gracefully and trade Kobe to free up cash for the rebuild unless Kobe said I am happy man to play second fiddle?

I agree with everything you’ve said except that the Lakers would never trade Kobe. Kobe will want to play the last year of his contract before retiring because he’ll want to try to go out with a bang. If Howard stays then building around him for the future would be a good idea but it’s actually okay if they just let Howard go in the off season because that will clear a lot of cap space. They’ll have to keep everyone that’s under contract & trade the rest of team for a whole bunch of players that’s similar to how Jordan’s Bulls were because Kobe tries so much to be like Mike & wants to win how Mike won – where he’s the focal point with a great supporting cast. And they need the right coach as well. Phil Jackson isn’t the only one, Doug Collins & a few others could do it. The way it worked for MJ is exactly what the Heat are doing – no dominant center, 1 or 2 extra great players, & a bunch of role players. The formula for this type of roster for Jordan & LeBron allows for great chemistry. Right now the teams that have the best mix of talent with chemistry are OKC, Spurs, & Heat.

you guys make me laugh. when are you guys going to stop the hype on lakes being a good team. The team was not good enough form the beginning of the year but there is always some article given them more credit than they disserve. I so the spurs lose to a Miami heat that had put a last minute lineup in absence of wade james , chalmers and huslem
we also sow the spurs almost beat the heat when four of their starts were missing. My point is those reserves that are hardly in rotation played better as a team that the LA lakers did and we still talking about The lakes need more time to play together.
Its really simple nash and gasol are past their prime, Kobe will never be the veteran that facilitate or helps the team bond and play together. Shaq, bynun and now Howard have a problem with kobe ball hogging ways

@ Oneofthekingssubjects…. Are you ill? What would you call bynum and gasol? See big men can play with kobe they just need to keep the mouth shut and play not be little babies and be off more then there on… I myself dont want to rebuild around howard he is still to immature to lead a team.

Okay so… D’antoni you NEED to go along with nash its just not working it never worked. You are the single reason every player inside that locker room was injured at some point this season with your absolute refusal to change your coaching ways. Maybe the we want phil chants your going to hear next game will make you storm off the court and resign. or maybe your still fueling on your coach of the month for the western conference is building your ego that much more. Either way Your terrible and yes we want phil back hell I think at this point most fans would of stuck with brown a few more games better yet.. let jack nickleson coach the next game. Anyways Spurs fans and loyal laker haters the first two games of this series would have been different had kobe played. not saying lakers would of won but it would of been different. And I leave with this PLEASE Jim resign your position bring in Phil and hire a new coach thats all I want.

y in gods name would we build around Howard? what exactly did u see to impress you? Because i didn’t see anything from him. When he gets dominated by a man twice his age and didn’t have half his athleticism in his prime, this isn’t a guy I want to pin my hopes on.

Crazy year. Started with a 70 win Laker season predictiion by Metta and now we are watching the two best teams in California: The Warriors and Clippers. The injuries killed the Lakers who I’ve always cheered for against the Spurs. Hopefully with Nash, Howard and a rejuvenated Kobe can come back strong next year.

There will be no sweep this sunday. All out support for the lakers. This season is just a temporary setback after all what had happened. Next season would be a better one. who knows Kobe might get his sixth ring. GO LAKERS!!!

yea as if kobe wasnt around when dallas swept them. Spurs would dominate this series even if kobe was playing. It might have been 4-1 but this lakers team is no match for spurs. There are so many things that needs to be changed about lakers. not just the coaching staff.

The Spurs Knew they were in the Playoffs long ago, The Lakers just made the playoffs and had to play hard to make it. The first part of the season was awful for the Lakers and it carried over and is exposed in the Playoffs. One player can make a difference if its a Shaq or Duncan or Howard, but you need a good team and coach, yes COACH. The Lakers do not have a good coach. The Lakers need a guy to step in and take a charge like Fisher did and they miss that. Clark and Hill were the bright spots for the Lakers this year, and Howard needs more help and a new coach. I would start with Howard, Clark and Hill and give some playing time to Devin Ebanks, the rest of the Lakers can go especially the coach.

Man what is it with all the hate on Kobe, without him they wouldn’t even be here, people blame him cause it’s easy to say that he’s a ballhog or selfish. but if you had the talent he has and your team is getting pounded every single night wouldn’t you try to carry your team? I mean it’s one thing to not like the dude but at least respect him enough to give him the credit he’s due. Oh and by the way you don’t win 5 NBA championships if you’re not a team player.

i hope they steal one game just to shut some of you UP!!! Why do you hate a team? Does it make your life better? I’m sure you don’t matter to them more than the fact that your hate only adds to their paychecks because you can’t keep their names out of your Fat Lips. Im a fan of good basketball I wish all teams to play great it’s good for the sport. I have favorite team but I don’t hate any of team. I LOVE BASKETBALL maybe I’m crazy!!! #hatersmakenosense

….shut US up ???? lakerfan is the one with all the BIG talk before the season, with your ‘allstar’ lineup…. it is the laker org. that is in love with itself and gives no respect to other real ‘teams’…..just an easy target ’cause of all the hotdoggin’, braggin’ and general ‘we are always better that you’ attitude……it just gets old !! Especially when they are betten than very few teams…

Lakers may have won one or two games with Kobe, but they still would have gone down to the Spurs. The Lakers future is looking bleak. Everyone in the front office is panicking. Howard is going to leave. You think he wants another year like this last one? And who knows how long Kobe Bryant will be out next season. Maybe until January? Even if he comes back sooner, the Lakers are not going to be much better. It’ll be Kobe and the same Lakers of the past, minus Dwight Howard. As a Suns fan, I wish the Lakers would have just missed the playoffs and given us their lottery pick. Glad we unloaded Nash to you guys. All Laker fans see is big name without paying attention to how a former star has been playing. Suns fans could have told you that Nash was going downhill, but in tinseltown, big names are a draw. You got what you wanted. Nash is no longer the player of old.

So many laker dreamer. SA is one of the top team in the NBA with a superior coach. So what if Kobe play! It wont make any differences. Look at the last few years, did lakes advance with Kobe????Stop dreaming!!!!!

Yeah, it wouldn’t be sweep, but the Lakers would still lose. Look at how their season has come to be. Mediocre play, supbar record and because of the Rockets they barely got the 7th seed. All at the cost of their aging scorer. Yeah with KB, it would have been fun to watch, but Kobe or no Kobe, the Spurs still would have taken care of them.

As a laker fan, I am not worried about the sweep because I saw it coming, what I am worried about is if Dwight Howard re-signing. If he doen’t re-sign, everything will not look good. Howards image will be wrecked, lakers have to invest in a new center, and if kobe doesn’t come back, the lakers are done for this era.

with or without kobe, the spurs will still win this series…sweep or not…remember that before the NBA season begun, they are going to beat the unbeata-Bulls record (72-10) and projcted to be a heat-laker showdown in the finals…so next season shut there loud mouths including pathetic fans of these faker team

Forget the “We want Phil” chants. He doesn’t want a piece of it no matter how much money he’s offered. He’s done with coaching, so stop dreaming and focus on the feasible.

Here are some mistakes, among several others, committed and omitted by the franchise.

1. Barnes was let go of at the start of the season, and is now an effective role player for the Staples Center squatters. Lakers are currently without a proper backup SF.
2. No trades were done before the deadline when it was clear that a number of players had to be disposed of. Ebanks, Duhon, maybe even Blake shouldn’t be Lakers.
3. Did not sign Iverson when he was clearly the answer to the loss of Kobe. He could have picked up some of the slack left by the Mamba which no other Laker guard can do so due to injuries, ineffectiveness, or even both.

Management is just too stupid not to make the right moves. A sweep in this series isn’t gonna be surprising.

How about a dozen less games a seaon and more pro-health time for the players! Injuries are getting out of control because the leagues time table is unreasonably cramped for recovery time for these players. It’s not worth it if players like Rose and now Kobe and Westbrook are sidelined due to pushing through muscle and tendon fatigue. Just saying.

Lakers fail makes me so happy because of you hardcore Lakers fans. I remember a tweet where someone called a 70+ wins and a simple ring, and now excuses, excuses, excuses. . “Kobe would have changed this series”; “Phil is better than D’Antoni :cry:” seriously? Try to build a strong bench, you spent 25m for a 39 years old guy. Now you have to go down with Goudelock and Morris playing 40 mins.

Crazy as it sounds, the Lakers should trade and/or release Kobe, Pau, Metta and Steve Nash and start building a new team around Dwight. None of these players will ever be as great as they once were due to injuries and age. Time to move on.

I am so thrilled that LA made the playoffs I love to watch them disappoint everyone and humiliate themselves. Kobe is faking his injury so next year when they start testing for stem cells he does not go through the whole Lance Armstrong deal. He will retire and smartly so he may play in europe or china but no more NBA.

Kobe would never play in Europ or China, he’s above that. He’ll just retire after next season. I would rather have seen Utah in the playoffs because they probably would’ve done better than Lakers in the first round.

Really,, don’t mess with texas???? ha ha win lets see 11 more championships Spurs, and Dallas, lets see 15 and Houston 15……the Lakers will be back dominate again. Oh yeah where is the Mavericks this year????

L.A is destined to be garbage next year as well. Kobe won’t likely return till mid season or after and sadly probaly wont be the mamba of old, and then you must add the fact that no one knows who is gonna remain in purple and gold next year. It’s going to be another season of chemistry issues from the get-go. Maybe 2014 will be a good year for laker fans….

RIP lakers, even if kobe was there they may have one a game or two, but they wouldnt win the series, why dont you fans get that? anyways let the rebuilding years begin for celts and lakers..so sad…oh well miami vs spurs, miami in 6

Wahahahah where’s your champ now huh? This is fun to watch wahahaha wooooohooo
Start of the season( lakers will win the championship) wahahah yeah ryt,,!,, fantastic five? Best line up in nba? Wahahahah get real !!!!!!!

The lakers management is responsible for the state the Lakers are in. Almost everything they did turned into a disaster. Their choice of coach was wrong, Steve Nash, no doubt still a very good player, but his health issues no longer allow him to play to his full potential.The Lakers bench does not have much depth because of which they have not been able to fill the gaps caused by injuries to their top players.Along with obvious changes in the team, some changes need to be brought about in the management as well.

actually , he was responsible for Lakers demise, even when he had one of his BEST season , he does not make the difference, it is only a SHOW, The guy is a terrible decision maker, jealous not a team player, he did not allow the lakers chemistry develop without him , at the end they did not have time to do it.no wonder Kobe is the most overrated closer in the nba , only a 31 % shooter in the last 24 seconds since 1997.

Kobe has never been a team player and yes, most overrated closer in NBA. Lakers need to clean house from top to bottom. Dwight would be smart to join a team like the Clippers where the players support each other. Let the rebuilding begin. Kobe, go play in Mexico or Turkey, if you can still play and thank Shaq for 3 of those rings.

Most overrated closer? That’s why he has around 27 game winners right? Probably another lechoke bandwagon. Kobe almost three peated without shaq and bringing Dwight was a bad move to start cuz Dwight has to be the star on his team and with Kobe he can’t do that. Do a sign and trade with Dwight for some picks in the draft or something.

If spurs fans think this is a good sweep on the cards then you are wrong, the lakers have so many injuries, they pretty much have to put out D league players to play so yea its all over. We do not want phil, thats gone. Sekou smith is such a laker hater, only supports bandwagon teams like clippers and heat. Yep really knows an awful lot about basketball….

….lol ……. pumping up the fakers….dissing the spur fans….. AND with the ‘boston rules’ moniker no less….the ONLY thing that Boston ” rules ” and LA for that matter is …..history……… this is the end of an era…… the Boston -LA era….. Maybe both will have ‘real’ teams in the next few years….. ya’ know with players THEY develop instead of buying other teams’ OLD all stars ….. Just a thought

Goodbye Lakers, regardless of the circumstances, I always be supporting for you. Time to focus now on the off season to get back into shape. It seems certain that D’Antoni will be here next season, so no excuses for him this time around.
Go Lakers go

As a hardcore Lakers fan and a season ticket holder for many years in the past, I decided this year not to buy my season tickets and I believe it was a great decision.Today I decided to buy a Lakers ticket for the 3rd game of the playoffs, and I paid over $400 for the ticket, hoping that I would see a good game, win or lose. As I sat there and the game progressed, and I saw how the Lakers were playing, I got sick to my stomach, and I wondered where my Lakers went. Howard and Gasol were no-shows, and at their worst. A few minutes after starting the 4th quarter, with the Lakers down, I decided to leave the game. I couldn’t take it anymore. As I am predicting the series will be a sweep. I’m hoping that next year, none of the players that played in today’s game, will be on the team, and there will be a complete cleansing of the team. As to those who were injured during the year, I am sure that the NBA will award each and every one of them the “NBA Purple Heart award”. I can’t wait for us to lose on Sunday, so I can wake up from this nightmare. The only positive I took from this game was the masterful game that Tim Duncan has exhibited. Hats off to Popovich and how he is keeping his players safe by givng them rest when is is needed.

lakers signed the end with d’antoni. lol i remember the game 2, close game, big defense time, then wired time out… and the coach of the decade, mike D : “run run, you got to run !” with windmill arms moves. my god. I am a spurs fan (since the duncan rookie year) but i’m not a hater and that lakers team is sad to see. yeah ok mike D has a lot of injuries but still, the only thing he does is sabotage. with a full roster lakers team, NO WAY HE CAN MAKE THEM WIN LIKE THAT, or any other team.

Lakers need to be rebuild front the bench upwards. Let start with Howard, Gasol and of course Bryant( I will love see him come out of the bench as 6 man) Around this wonderful trio the Lakers need to add young guns with 2/3 years experience on the NBA. The major problem are on the front court where there is not speed and defense energy. They need a bench which can produce points rebounds and give a strong contributions to the team. The salary cap is a big obstacle that is why I will let Nash, Blake Metta leave.

As much as the article was articulately thought of and put into a very attractive manner by stating the individuals showing up to play for the lakers would be best be equated to a vegas summer league game – is to be blunt absolute rubbish. These men are proven NBA players, otherwise they wouldn’t be wearing purple and gold. The Andrew Goudelocks and Darius Morris and Chris Duhons or Earl Clark’s aren’t nobody’s – they were someone’s opponent back in times past either in highschool, college or university that proved good enough to make it into a professional setting. That’s actually quite insulting to them – who train everyday and get paid millions to perform especially for situations like these. To top it off no credit was given to how hard the spurs are playing – and with humbleness knowing not to discount a team as rich of a history for success of the lakers and with that a team that supposedly doesn’t go down without a championship goal mentality like fight. All in all this article only had its bright moment when it sarcastically praised Andrew Goudelock for playing as hard as he did, by referring to him as a “kid” instead of a newb.

So many injuries… I feel really bad for Westbrook. But as long as Miami won’t win the title everything will be fine. I would prefer someone else than the Spurs though, but if they can beat Miami – please do so.

that was one year when Phil was getting too tired and too much thoughts of retiring on his mind fool. When a person thinks about retiring they’re pretty already retired, cus they can’t wait. But now he’s rejuvanted. he’s hungry again for more championshp and ready to come back. Whoever hires him now will benefit from that. His battery is fully charged. With Dwight and Gasol and Kobe and Blake. Phil can get rid of all the other garbage on the roster and rebuild the Lakers for a championship contender.

Goodbye to the Fakers! no doubt even if kobe is around they will still get sweeped by the TEAM oriented spurs unlike the ballhogging lakers. oops i have mistaken if kobe was around they wouldnt even be in the playoffs since those last games the lakers team played like a whole TEAM not a one man ballhogging team.

LOL..ok buddy, Duncan on a mission, no one could have stopped him last night, kobe doesnt play all positions and as we all saw last night there is no DEPTH on that roster. Delusional if you think kobe would have made a difference.

If kobe was their the lakers would lose sweep or no sweep. He might give lakers more of a chance to win a game, but with him the Lakers still would lose the series. Its time for the Lakers to start over and rebuild around HOWARD. Dwight also has to man up and take control tell kobe his time is up, and even though Kobe might be the more popular player, dwight is the better player (shut up kobe fans you know dwight RIGHT NOW is the better player). No bigman can play in the kobe system unless your Shaq, and Dwight is not shaq. Finally get rid of all the old players that includes nash, gasol, blake, jamison, world peace, and get some picks from other teams. Get some draft picks and maybe some spot up shooters, hey get a guy like mickael pietrus anyone to save this team.

“One of the King’s subjects” That is the most ignorant and STUPID comment that I have seen on here. Dwight better than Kobe? Dwight has NEVER, IS NOT, and WILL NEVER BE in the same league as Kobe. Don’t even try to play that game. The ONLY 2 things Dwight does better than Kobe is rebound and block shots. Like Skip Bayless said, “If I were a Laker fan, I would be horrified by the prospect of Dwight Howard becoming the face of the franchise after Kobe leaves.”

If Kobe was there the Lakers could still be swept. Remember the 2011 sweep by the Mavs. In 2012 they lost the series 4-1 to the Thunder. The Lakers have been out of the elite picture since their they got their last Championship.

@Josh this is what seperates the real nba fans from the kobe fans, kobe is not the best player in the leauge any more (Lebron). He is not the best guard in the nba anymore (Chris Paul), he is not the best shooting guard anymore (Wade). If you stoped worshiping kobe for a couple of minutes, all you see is a player who doesn’t want to be 2nd fiddle agian, who is throwing wins to prove something to himself. Wanna prove something go for the title put your ego down and give it to the BEST BIG MAN IN THE LEAUGE so you can WIN!!! And whatever skip bayless says is pretty much trash, all I see is a kobe fan not a laker fan in denial.

Michael’s comment is such a dumb one
Its like us saying u couldnt beat the clippers cuz u beat the lakers
The sorry mavs had a good flow in the playoffs and stole a ring that year. Where are they now?
I give props to the spurs on their consistency and if they keep playing as if they have 3 kobe’s, then they have a change to go up against the heat

Naw…. KB24 knows too well how painful it is to be swept off just like that… He’d rather tweet his thoughts about the game…

And don’t excuse the bandwagon fans… They’ll most definitely spew their venom sometime soon on anyone they can point their fingers to… I’m still waiting for them to point their fingers on the Gatorade supply the team has been drinking the whole season…

If KB24 were around, a sweep could never have happened. It would have been a different story. They could have even possibly won the series. Haters first said they won’t make the playoffs, but they did. KB24 made that happen, it’s just unfortunate he got injured. So toss all your hate on the Lakers because without KB24 playing, your predictions are coming true.

With Kobe there will be more drama and the Lakers would at least win the first game of the series. Like I said before, Kobe has the mindset of stealing the first game of every series, thats how he got so many rings. Dwight said “it’s only the first game” is a mindset of a great player who wins games, not title. The Lakers lost badly and sadly this season is bc of the hiring of Nash and Mike D. Nash makes more the doulbe Jamal Crawford but produce less than a quarter of productivity. Mike D went into the playoff saying Spurs Popovich beats him every year, year after year. what a great mindset and confident level. Lakers need to trade Nash and hire a different coach. I heard Phil is still interested.

oh..and i predicted that the Lakers would be down at least 3-0 after Dwight said “it’s only the first game” cus thats usually the result of the player who said that about the playoff. By the time he realizes, it’s too late to make a comeback. First game is probably the biggest game. So, if u played in the playoff before, u shouldn’t said it’s ONLY the first game. It’s the game that gives players confident, especially a road game.

the Lakers won a few games without Kobe and they thought they play better without him. But the only person that would play best in playoff games is the Black mamba himself. Lakers game 3 loss shows how low their confident level is. Spurs confident level is off the roof and thats why they out matched the Lakers energy and thats why their shots fell through. Listening to Mike D talk just make me want to throw up. How many more years does the Lakers have to suffer wit Mike D? Jim Buss will destroy his father’s legacy single-handedly because of his personal hatred with Phil.